Let me give an example.
Christmas - for me - has always come at the end of the year. And this makes a sort of obvious sense. The holiday comes toward the end of the last month of the civic and solar calendar. But for centuries the Christian Church has celebrated Advent and Christmas as the beginning of the year.
Similarly, Sunday has always been a part of the week's end. We'd go to church on Sundays -at the end of a long weary week - to "recharge our spiritual batteries," as it were. But, like Advent, Sundays are the beginning of the week. Sunday (the little Easter) shouldn't the drooping and dragging end of a week but the joyful celebration of a new beginning. I've got things all together backwards.
The liturgical calendar might seem like an arbitrary arrangement of feasts and celebrations, but it has been deliberately designed and over the centuries carefully refined as a subtle teacher, teaching by pattern and repetition the foundational truths of the Christian faith. Like Mr. Miyagi teaching Daniel karate with endlessly repeated tasks, the liturgical year - when purposefully and intelligently followed - can give strength and skills to our faith.
the purpose of the liturgical year is to bring to life in us and around us, little by little, one layer of insight after another until we grow to full stature in the spiritual life. (pg. 21)Though most of the book has prompted me to further reading and to a deeper exploration of the lliturgical cycle, Chapter 32 on Marian Feasts was largely wasted on me. The Roman Catholic devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus, isn't something I'll be incorporating into the way I put the lliturgical year into practice.
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I love the liturgy! I did grow up in a liturgical denomination, however it was not something I cherished then. Having fallen away from the church, only to be reborn into a non-liturgical denom, I have a new appreciation.
ReplyDeleteLike you I would no...t observe Roman Catholic dogma about Mary or Saints, but the rest is very valuable. Look at how God instructed the Israelites about feasts. He didn't do this for His own gratification; it was for them. We are tangible beings that need the tangible to understand. Seasons, feasts and observances give us that link into the spiritual.
Let me encourage you to change your way of thinking. You said, "My denomination doesn't have much use for the liturgy." I disagree, I think everyone has a use for it; but you need to discover what that use is for you. A sermon series about the colors of "times" would be great. Also, consider readings that drive home the point. In my own ministry I would also use the lectionary to accentuate this idea.
Have fun and God bless.See More